THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, December 29, 1995 TAG: 9512290690
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ED MILLER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: SACRAMENTO LENGTH: Medium: 60 lines
Old Dominion coach Jeff Capel said he would learn a lot about his team by the way the Monarchs played against Cal-Sacramento Thursday night in the consolation game of the Sacramento Holiday Classic.
One thing he may have learned - had reinforced, actually - is that absolutely nothing is coming easily for the Monarchs this year.
After opening up a 16-point lead early in the second half, ODU needed overtime to hold off Cal-Sacramento 69-62 at Arco Arena.
The Monarchs (4-7) were looking for an emphatic win after a lackluster 65-54 loss to Idaho Wednesday night.
What they got was a narrow escape over a Cal-Sacramento team that is annually one of the lowest-rated in Division I.
The Monarchs would not have been in a position to win at all had E.J. Sherod not forced overtime by making two foul shots with 3.9 seconds remaining.
The Monarchs had a 12-point halftime lead, and were up 50-34 with 16:44 left.
But Cal-Sacramento went on a 24-9 run and took a 58-57 lead with 1:59 remaining.
The Hornets' lead was two, 61-59, after Eric Carey hit a 3-point shot with 26 seconds left.
But Sherod, fouled on a drive, stepped to the line and tied it at 61. ODU scored the first four points of overtime and never trailed again.
Odell Hodge led ODU with 15 points. Mike Byers had 12 and Sherod scored 11, nine of them coming after halftime. The Monarchs had seven blocks and 12 steals and held Cal-Sacramento to 39 percent shooting.
After the flat performance Wednesday, Capel shook up his starting lineup, going with Skipper Youngblood in place of Joe Bunn and Brion Dunlap in place of Sherod.
Cal-Sacramento watched ODU go 3 of 23 from 3-point range Wednesday night and did the obvious thing and came out in a zone defense.
But ODU was noticeably more intense than Wednesday, and some tough man-to-man defense enabled the Monarchs to get out in transition. The Monarchs had five first-half steals, four blocks and forced 12 Cal-Sacramento turnovers.
The Monarchs were able to exploit the smaller Hornets inside from the beginning.
Bassette and Youngblood established new career highs before halftime. Bassette had eight points by the half while Youngblood had six.
In Wednesday's late game:
Vaughn Jones paced five teammates in double-figure scoring with 21 points to lead George Washington to a 98-81 victory over Sacramento State in the second game of the Sacramento Holiday Classic at Arco Arena.
Yegor Mescheriakov had 20 points for the visiting Colonials (5-2), who steadily expanded an eight-point halftime margin and pushed their advantage to 85-64 on Kwame Evans' lay-in with 5:18 left in the game.
Alexander Koul and Evans each added 15 points for George Washington, which claimed its third straight win. by CNB